The rear window security grid and light system generally relates to law enforcement equipment and more specifically to pattern of bars with lights upon them that permits viewing through the bars and illumination behind a police vehicle. Though this description refers to police, the usage of police encompasses other agencies of various names in the law enforcement community.
For decades, police have patrolled their beats using automobiles. The automobiles bring an officer to a location on his beat quickly when a time of need arises, such as a crime in progress or other urgent situation. A police automobile travels at a high rate of speed when on official business, such as pursuit of a suspect, to reach a crime in progress, and the like. A fast police automobile presents a hazard to other motorists prohibited from travelling as fast as the police automobile. To warn other motorist, police automobiles have use sirens and lights. The sirens have a classic wailing sound known to motorists through watching media and hearing the occasional police automobile. A motorist hearing police sirens knows what to do and moves out of the way. Also to warn motorists, police automobiles have had lights upon them. In past decades, a police automobile would have an incandescent light in a rotating dome upon the roof of the police automobile. In more recent years, a police automobile has one of many light bars across its roof. Present day light bars utilize light emitting diode technology. The light bars generally flash blue, red, white, or a white, or a combination of them. Various state statutes regulate the deployment and operation of sirens and light bars upon police automobiles.
Police automobiles also transport the weapons and equipment of a police officer. From time to time, a police automobile also transports a prisoner. For many decades, police have used sedans as their automobiles. Sedans have the front windshield, door windows, and rear window as commonly seen on cars. A front windshield has the largest width and unobstructed view than the other windows. A front windshield allows the police officer driving the automobile to see the road ahead. The driver side front door window and passenger side front door window appear similar to their civilian counterparts. The driver side rear door window and the passenger side rear door window include reinforcement or safety glass features to prevent prisoners from breaking them. The rear window has a typical shape as the civilian counterpart but much less height than the front windshield. The rear window of an automobile in police use presents a low height generally less than the height of a gun case. A police officer may store a gun case in the trunk of a police automobile, or sedan, knowing that any breakage of a rear window or rear door window will not permit removal of a gun case from the trunk. Trunk storage keeps a gun case and other equipment out of sight and locked.
In the last fifteen to twenty years, police agencies have put more and more sport utility vehicles into their fleets and the number of sedans dwindles. A sport utility vehicle, or SUV, Ford® Explorer® for example, has a large rear window often as a component to a hatch. The rear window has a height nearly similar to the front windshield. The windows upon an SUV allow persons to see within it and provide poor concealment of contents. The windows upon an SUV have a large size that would allow passage of a gun case. An SUV lacks the security features in a sedan's trunk. Following Sep. 11, 2001 and more recent urban disturbances in the United States, police have deployed more gear, equipment, and weapons in their SUVs. In select urban disturbances, persons unknown have broken the rear windows of SUV and in a handful of incidents, such persons have taken police contents from the SUV. Also, in less publicized incidents, police officers have had rifles stolen from vehicles in their driveways, while out of a police SUV on calls, rendering assistance, taking reports, and other times the police vehicle is left unattended.